If you do want to plum for a Chinese translator, you should definitely invest in the speaking models. Spoken Chinese can sound completely alien to what its phonetically-written counterpart would indicate as pronunciation is dependent on not just syllabic sounds but also on four rising and falling tones, applied liberally throughout. A slightly different tone on a single syllable can change the entire meaning of a word. Although you might feel silly holding your contraption up to someone's ear, this feature could come in very useful.
If you're feeling really bold, you might even opt for a talking translator with a pen pad. V-Tech makes a nice one that allows you to draw - or perhaps attempt to draw - any Chinese characters you don't recognise (out of the more than 50,000 in the language, there will most likely be a few!) and have them converted into English. However attractive this might sound, these models are much more expensive and you'd have to be a pretty dab hand to replicate effectively many of these ornate characters. Starting prices on translators range from HK$1000-2500.
If faxing is your reason for living, you might want to check out a little gadget called the Handifax 1000 - 'fax anywhere, anytime, even with a cell phone!!'. This portable fax sender with built-in acoustic coupler starts at HK$1000 and exists solely to send faxes - why bother with something as silly as receiving them too? While the compact technology is clever, the application here is pretty one-dimensional to say the least and your money could be better spent elsewhere. Manufacturer Supafax obviously believes in sticking to core competencies and nothing else.